Breakfast scheme fuels up 400 Derby school children

Derby County Community Trust – in partnership with His Church Charity – today invited local schools to attend the launch of ‘Team Up To Be Champions, School Breakfasts For Winners’.

The launch of the breakfast cereal distribution event took place at the iPro Stadium.

The event was part of a brand new project initiated by His Church for 2016. The project aims to improve educational attainment and social inclusion through the provision of healthy, good quality breakfast cereal to school Breakfast Clubs in partnership with Football Clubs.

Schools were invited to come along to the home of the Rams to collect their supply of Kelloggs Cornflakes and Rice Krispies cereal – as well as the chance to meet club mascot Rammie, take a look around the iPro Stadium and even build a wall of cereal!

“This is a tremendous initiative and we’re delighted to be supporting it.

“It is important for everyone that the young people of our city remain both healthy and active to make contributions to the city and community.

“His Church work with a lot of Football Clubs in the UK and it’s fantastic that we’ve been able to benefit from their great work here in Derby.”

The event was used to kick-start a Derby City Council scheme which will benefit almost 400 pupils across Derby. Breakfast for Champions will look to ensure pupils across the city eat a bowl of cereal containing essential nutrients to kick-start the day before jetting off to class.

The scheme recognises that breakfast is a very important meal and not every child gets to eat it. It aims to do something about this by providing a good healthy bowl of cereal to growing children to help them improve their educational attainment and boost social inclusion.

Breakfast of Champions has been funded by local business woman Kavita Oberoi along with sponsorship support from Copemann Ashby Ltd, who have made it possible for almost 400 children in Derby to eat a guaranteed breakfast for their first school term. She is currently exploring options to keep it running for longer.

Councillor Sarah Russell, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills at Derby City Council, has been championing free school breakfast schemes for young people in the city of Derby. As part of her mission to ensure this continues, she forged links with local businesses.

She said:

“Breakfast of Champions is an exciting and innovative scheme which will benefit many pupils from schools around Derby. We are all in deep gratitude to Kavita Oberoi who has funded the entire project so young people receive breakfast, regardless of their family income and whether they are eligible for school meals.

“These breakfasts will ensure schoolchildren have the essential nutrients that will keep them going through the day and enable them to concentrate in class and participate in sports’ activities without getting tired or not being well enough to play.”